OUR September Yearling Sale takes place from next Tuesday to Thursday (September 23rd-25th) and the team at Tattersalls Ireland has been actively promoting the sale across the UK and Europe over the past few months.

The promotion for this sale doesn’t start just when the catalogue arrives in early August but as soon as the first winner crosses the line from the previous year’s sale catalogue.

I’m sometimes asked ‘what you do when the sales are over?’ The simple answer is ‘we start again’ but with the aim of further improving and developing our offering both to the vendors and buyers.

When the sales season ends in November/December, we begin planning for the following year, establishing budgets, marketing and advertising plans and schedules. There is massive maintenance and work to be done on the Tattersalls Ireland site every year and this is planned in advance the previous year.

We are looking at breeze-up horses for inspection almost immediately after the December Sales and begin looking at Derby Sale horses from January through to the end of March.

We have a February NH sale the first week of February and in between our Derby Sale inspections we sponsor over 30 point-to-points around the country that we attend and where we get an opportunity to speak with clients.

We also have other sponsorships at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival, the Punchestown Festival and of course our sales race at the Curragh.

Our yearling visits commence in April and we are flat out looking at yearlings until the end of June.

The team of Neil Walsh, Harry Fowler, Tom Rudd, Timmy Hillman, John O’Kelly, Edmond Mahony and I all inspect yearlings for Tattersalls October and Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sales, so there is a huge number of clients to visit and yearlings to inspect.

The Derby Sale is in June and we undertake a significant amount of promotion in the UK, visiting trainers, owners, agents and persuading them to come to the sales. This follows through to our August and September Sales, albeit targeting two different audiences or markets.

We are also viewing foals from early July for the November NH and December Sales at Tattersalls. Rest assured we have plenty to keep us busy.

Sales race: Our own €200,000 Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes took place on Sunday at the Curragh and, with 29 runners, we entertained 230 clients, mainly syndicates, for lunch and afternoon tea. The winner, Midterm Break was bred by and sold by John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud for €32,000 at last year’s September Yearling Sale. The race continues to stand the test of time and next week’s sale (Tuesday-Thursday) will catalogue yearlings who are all eligible to run in next year’s race run during Champions Weekend.

Oliver Brady: I was saddened to hear of Oliver Brady’s passing. He celebrated his winners in a unique way and his ‘Up Monaghan’ cries always brought a smile to people’s faces. Oliver fought like a tiger against his illness for a considerable time and he was a tireless worker for the Shabra Charity Foundation. My condolences to his family. Irish racing has lost a friend.